Sacred Seven Fell by a Stone Cold Stunner

And that’s what I hated to see. But it has happened. Yes, the show is nearly stone cold. And not in a good way…

All right, a little confusion (not to mention cheesiness) on my part. However, I’ll list the things I like and not like about it. Then I’ll explain why I feel it’s gone cold on me.

Things I like about Sacred Seven:

– easy plots. There are no complex issues to understand, just straight up beating the monster of the week and then discovering the real villain behind it all through episodes progressing.

– no wacko stuff. This is what I despise in shows like Penguin Drums and Fooly Cooly. Fooly Cooly was just bizarre and never resonated with me, but Penguin Drums is an insult to my intelligence. Eh. The rant stops here. But yes, nothing contorted, absurd and freakish. That often make stupidity.

– no artsy shit. And this one is another one of my favorite element to despise (hate is such a weak word). It can be good to have some montage of images and great shots (NOT under the skirt shots), and if you can manage to add some great Gothic track (cough Kajiura cough) to the mix, it often makes a good watch. But save the cutouts and all that other pretentious efforts to squirt pure entertainment into the stratosphere of artsy-fartsy gas clouds. Miyazaki and maybe Satoshi Kon did art right, but they didn’t really make anime, they made 2D (non-live action) art house films using cels and CG’s. In any case, there’s none of those aforementioned things, but it does have Kajiura…however…well, let me save that till later.

– Great spirit, at least in episodes two and three. Passionate, classic battles against giant sized villains. Always makes an old-fashioned anime fan cry in joy. Also, straight up head on collisions make an eternal shonen’s heart sing praises.

– Nice enough cast. Decent all around. Kinda feel like a summer blockbuster movie with recognizable big names in the credits list. Oh, and that means also music composer (more Kajiura), also especially in episodes two and three.

…So, that should make it perfect right?

You know, I’m sure the mileage is way longer for a lot of folks out there. However, being a veteran anime watcher, I curse myself for being hard to please. And all right, if I end the article here, it’s a B watch for what it tries to do…

But of course the article continues and here are things that I don’t like, which are not many, surprisingly:

– The obviousness about the villain just deflates the drama. I’m sure most of you are way smarter than I am when it comes to anime plots. So how many of you guessed the real villain as soon as he showed up as a friend of the family? Yeah, exactly. Obvious villain is obvious villain.

– Odd lack of chemistry between the characters. In this case, it’s really the seiyuu (voice overs) lacking bonding/chemistry. Look, doing voice over is acting, and acting in a group and making the cast work requires chemistry. Tandouji, the lead male and Ruri, the lead female, simply don’t click as well as they try, in my not-so-humble opinion. Again, mileage may very for others. But for me, they just don’t seem to be falling in love. And we know they’re supposed to be.

– The lack of plot. OK, chew me out but having a super simple plot doesn’t mean it can’t be spectacular, or at least fun. The plot is serious but it’s lackluster. It’s also not fun. Sunrise (read: BANDAI) loves to do big, spectacular works (TO HELP THEM SELL STUFF), but take a look at, oh I don’t know, Sora Kake no Shojo AKA the Girl that Leaps through Space. It’s an overblown, summer blockbuster style trash with too many characters and a laughable plot, not to mention story is silly. But it doesn’t take itself too serious and it tries to be fun. And I can respond to fun – it’s anime, NOT FUCKING ARRRRT! That’s what it tells me and that, I accept humbly. But Sacred Seven fails to deliver that cheeky fun. And yes, I fucking know Sora Kake is also part comedy.

– the music escapes my memory. What? I thought Kajiura is at at the helm??? But the OP is your average run-of-the-mill technopop. I mean, I get it, it’s a summer blockbuster designed to sell merchandise, but the original Gundam was designed to sell stuff, too! OK, the comparison is grossly unfair, but back harping on the soundtrack – there just isn’t anything really memorable to me. And that’s despite me praising the effort of having Kajiura at the helm. Oh and,

Yes, that’s it. I mean, all the attempts at trying to make an interesting summer blockbuster were exposed like worms under the hot sun, and nothing could wiggle its way out of the predicament. It’s so simple – make it fun, stop being so serious about “Devil rocks that attack people”, and give us something more…Oh I dunno, Ruri’s ureshi – hazukashi (joyfully embarrassing) panty shots (and ditch that hairdo)??? Oh yes, there was a seaside episode (I…guess…) but the burning lack of chemistry just doesn’t do it. Oh and, all the battles simply felt flat, too. After the epic-sized battles in the beginning, the stuff later is either silly or lackluster.

I do like Knight and his girlfriend’s story, so I’d like to see them more, but you know that ain’t gonna happen. So I’ll be stuck with the boring Tandouji with a personality barely obvious than a rock. Now that’s ironic.

Or stone cold.

In any event, everything just became flat. As if hit by a stone cold stunner and fell dead to the ground. The story about Ruri’s sister couldn’t save it – I saw it as rich, idiot brats unable to be mature about things, and the rest is just obviousness and dullness exploded together, which gave off a few large sparks but never lit the torch.

Again, the mileage may very, but it felt STONE COLD for me. And that’s bottomline.

(Boy, I can only end this with some cheese.) It’s recommend for when you want to kill time, but the lack of fun simply makes me down. At least artsy stuff have things for me to hate. This one is just (oh boy not again)…